How to Boost Your Immune System: A Complete Guide

By Susan Dickson

How to Boost Your Immune System: A Complete Guide thegearhunt.com

Do you find yourself getting sick often and having to take time off of work that you can ill afford? Do you find yourself not wanting to get out of bed in the mornings to face the day? This could be because you have a weakened immune system and don’t even know it. Our immune systems are like the guardians of our body. They protect if for forces in the environment that might hurt it and is extremely critical to your continued survival. As a matter of fact, next to the nervous system, your immune system is the most important system in your body.

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When your immune system is operating properly you don’t notice it, but when it’s compromised, it can open you up to diseases, illnesses, and in some cases even death. It’s important to note that everyone is born with varying immune systems. Some of us might have a strong immune system while someone else might be born with a weak one. There are many different ways that you can boost your immune system to give it the build-up it needs to keep you happy, healthy, and bright. It’s important to know the things that can weaken your immune system and the signs that yours might be compromised as well.

That’s why in this blog on the immune system, we are going to delve into the things that can weaken it, the signs yours might be weak, and then go into some of the top things you can do to give your system a boost. So, without further ado, let’s jump headfirst into our blog on the immune system and what you can do to keep yours strong and ready to fight.

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Things That Can Weaken Your Immune System

As previously stated, you need to keep your immune system going strong, if you want to have enough energy to get through the day and not be sick while doing it. In this section, we’ll go into a few of the things that can weaken your immune system together.

Stress

Chronic stress, the day in and day out type of stress such as worrying about bills, a tiring job, or a family member that is in dire straits is the worst thing for trying to keep a healthy immune system. As a matter of fact, chronic stress can end up with you having a lower natural killer cell count, which leaves you open to all manner of illness and diseases. This isn’t talking about the every now and again stress of fighting with your kid over grades or a bad day at the office, this is the stress that is every day and never goes away.

You Have a Poor Diet

A poor diet filled with sugars, processed foods, and fast foods can quickly put your immune system on high alert. A steady diet of these things can lead to your immune system becoming compromised and opening you up to many chronic conditions. Not to mention the fact that it leads to obesity and increases your chance of heart disease and other conditions. A healthy diet consists of plenty of fruits and veggies, just so you know.

You Drink Way Too Much

In the short term, drinking to excess can cause you to have more colds than non-drinkers do. In the long term, it can lead to everything from cirrhosis of the liver to cancer and much more. There is nothing wrong with having the occasional drink on the weekends, but having a daily habit that gets out of hand is weakening your immune system and making you not too great to be around at the same time.

You Never Get Enough Sleep

When you sleep, your immune system and the rest of your body have a chance to recharge and build themselves up. When you’re not getting the sleep you need to rejuvenate, it lowers your immunity making you irritable and unable to cope. Studies have shown that people who get less than seven hours of sleep a night are more apt to get viruses, like colds, than people who make sure they get the sleep they need.

You’re Obese

Being overweight is another way that you can significantly compromise your immune system. Studies have shown that people who are obese often don’t have the ability to fight off influenza infections and have lower white cell counts than they need to fight off colds and other conditions.

You Get No Exercise

According to recent research, people who got no exercise and sat behind a desk all day took four days more of sick leave than people who were active. That’s because moderate exercise helps to increase your blood flow, which then helps to expel toxins from your system, toxins that can make you sick if left unchecked. It is estimated that walking even 20 minutes a day, five days a week can give you a boost to your immune system and make you feel a whole lot better as well.

Excessive Use of Medications

While you need medications to fight infections at the time, some prescription and non-prescription meds can put major toxins into your body. It’s important to note that excessive use of antibiotics and even cold and flu-fighting medicines can actually mess with your immune system making you more susceptible to the very thing you’re trying to fight against.

Not Keeping Up with Proper Hygiene

No doubt about it, you have got to be clean. You need to brush your teeth twice a day, wash your hands before eating, and make sure to keep your fingernails neat and clean to ensure that you aren’t getting more germs than you are already exposed to in the normal course of the day. Being clean should come as second nature, but if it doesn’t it can lower your immunity and you’ll get sick more often.

Now that we know a few of the top things that you are doing, or could be doing that can compromise your immune system, we will list the signs and symptoms of a compromised immune system below as well.

Signs and Symptoms of a Compromised Immune System

You’re stressed all of the time

You’re severely overweight
You tire really easily
You have a cold constantly

You never get enough sunlight
Your wounds are really slow to heal
Your stomach often hurts

If you’re experiencing any or all of the signs and symptoms above, you need to start working on boosting your immune system back to a healthy state right away. In the next section of our blog, we’re going to talk about a few of the best ways that you can do that. Ready to learn how to save your immune system and stop getting sick all of the time? Us too! Then, let’s get started!

Top Ways to Improve Your Immune System Revealed

Many people feel that the only time they really need to worry about the state of their immune system is during the winter months. While you do need to worry about it more at this point, due to flu and cold season, you also need to worry about it the rest of the year as well. However, if you do the right thing, then your immune system will already be up to par and you’ll have nothing to worry about. If your immune system is compromised or you feel like it could be, read on below for a few of the top ways to get it back up to par.

Get the Required Amount of Sleep

Sleep deprivation is one of the worst things for your immune system. You need to be getting the required amount of sleep for your age every night. This isn’t to say that your immune system is going to be compromised by just one night of not getting enough sleep, it’s when not sleeping is a constant thing that your immune system starts to suffer. Aim to get the recommended amount of sleep for your age every night and it will strengthen your immune system.

Try to Avoid Stress

Stress of any kind when prolonged can weaken your immune system. Think about it for a second. If you are stressed, you’re either overeating or not eating at all, and most of the time you eat the wrong foods, which affects your immune system. When you’re stressed, you also tend to not be able to sleep and stay locked away in the house more, meaning you’re not getting exercise or sunlight. In other words, trying to avoid or manage your stress the right way through meditation and relaxing will go a long way towards making you healthy once again.

Quit Smoking and Avoid the Smoke of Others

Smoking and being exposed to the smoke of others is a basic way for your immune system to be compromised. This can easily lead to conditions such as bronchitis, colds, and pneumonia. If you’re looking to give your immune system a boost, then stop smoking and make others smoke outside of your home and away from you and your family. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel just by getting away from tobacco smoke for good.

Avoid Alcohol

While many people aren’t willing to avoid alcohol altogether in order to give their systems a boost, it is a good idea to at least cut down on how much you drink. Not only does excessive drinking lower your immunity and make it easier for you to become sick, but it also opens you up to constant lung infections as well, which can be extremely dangerous if left untreated.

Eat the Way You Should

While everything you want to do to be healthy and fit comes with the tag eat healthy, it’s never more important than when your immune system has been compromised. Veggies, fruits, nuts, and seeds can provide the nutrients you need to get your bodies defense systems back on the right track. Eating right just makes good common sense, adding in the fact that your immune system is suffering because of your diet makes it even more important to change up the way you eat, wouldn’t you think? Adding garlic to your diet is also a good way to increase your immunity as well. Add it to your foods just before serving them for the greatest effect.

Get Out in the Sun and Exercise

Getting out in the sun and exercising seem to go hand in hand, don’t they? While you can get the exercise you need to boost your immunity inside on the treadmill or exercise bike, it’s still important to catch those rays when you can as well. Boost your dosage of vitamin B, get out in the sunlight at least 20 minutes a day, even if it’s just taking a walk around the neighborhood and see how much better you feel after about a week. You’ll be surprised, trust me!

See Your Doctor

Once you have tried everything that you can to boost your immune system, if you’re still not feeling up to par, it’s best to make an appointment with your primary health care provider. He can see if there is an underlying cause to your immune system being compromised and then come up with a treatment plan to help you boost it and feel better as well. Seeing your doctor is always a good idea when it comes to a lowered immune system anyway.

This concludes our blog on how to boost your immune system and the things that cause it, to begin with. Remember, if you have suspicions that your immunity has been compromised, it’s important to start boosting your system right away. Until next time, stay safe, eat right, and don’t forget to exercise, everyone!